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No Happy Place (Kinect Disneyland Adventures Creepypasta)
Ever since I was a kid, I've loved Disneyland. In 2001 when I turned ten, my parents took me to Disneyland for my birthday, and I instantly fell in love with the place. The costume Disney characters were amongst my favorites next to all the awesome rides, the Matterhorn being my personal favorite. I remember giving Mickey Mouse a bear hug the moment I laid eyes on him, and my parents took several photos of me with the Disney Princesses. Despite being a boy, I loved the Disney Princesses, especially Ariel. Her beautiful voice always touched my very heart whenever I heard her sing. I also loved something else in my youth, and that was video games, specifically Disney games. Throughout my childhood, I loved playing Disney games such as Mickey's Speedway USA, Donald Duck Going Quackers, Kingdom Hearts, and several others as well. When Kinect Disneyland Adventures was released in 2011 for the Xbox 360, I was about sixteen years old and in high school. The moment I learned about this game, I was head over heels to get my hands on it, but Mom told me to wait until Christmas to get it. And once Christmas rolled around, I received the game as a stocking gift from my Aunt Kara, and I immediately became an instant fan of this game the moment I started playing it. The minigames were amazing, the characters were incredibly lifelike and amazing, and everything about it made me feel as if I were a kid again. I literally felt as if I were in the actual Disneyland park, though there were a few attractions missing from the games version of Disneyland. These included Star Tours, Indiana Jones Adventure, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, and Tarzan's Treehouse. Apparently from what I learned, those attractions weren't included in the game due to copyright issues. Despite this, I enjoyed the game more than any other Disney game I had played in the past, and so did my friends and family. My sister Tina was an ace at the Space Mountain minigame and my Mom loved the Big Thunder Mountain minigame. My favorite one was of course the Matterhorn and It's A Small World minigame since those rides were my favorite ones in the park. Within a few months, I had obtained all the Hidden Mickey's, gotten all 44 snapshots, discovered all the areas of interest, and found all 79 photo passes in the game. By this point, I had pretty much completed every task in the game, but I was still hooked to it like a moth to the flame. Unfortunately, it wasn't to last. About eight years later, something would happen that would forever change my perspective of Disneyland, as well as remind me that the world isn't as peaceful as one might think. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though, so I'll get down to explaining. It was around February of 2019 when this story occurred. I was twenty-four years old and Kingdom Hearts III had just recently been released for the PS4 and Xbox 360, so as you can guess, I was very excited to try and get my hands on it. Unfortunately, the Gamestop I usually went to for all my games was all sold out of copies when I went there to check for one, so I decided to head back home and order one on Amazon Prime. After I had returned home and purchased a copy of Kingdom Hearts III for the Xbox 360 on Amazon Prime, I decided to entertain myself to a little bit of Smash Bros Ultimate since I had the day off from my forklifting job at Lowes. I searched my game shelve for Smash Bros Ultimate when I came across a familiar game; it was none other than Kinect Disneyland Adventures. I had stopped playing it on a consistent basis a few years ago when I was twenty years old due to losing interest, but I still occasionally played when I got the chance. Deciding that I needed a bit of nostalgia, I took the game and inserted it into my Xbox 360, eager to interact with my favorite Disney characters again and have some fun adventures on the Matterhorn and Its A Small World. Once the system booted up, I prepared to launch the game and stopped when a notification popped up. Curious, I checked it and it said that a special update was available for the game, which confused me. I didn't remember any updates being announced for this game, but then something came to me that got me thinking. At the time this game was released, Disney had not yet acquired the rights to the Star Wars franchise, so Star Tours wasn't included in the game. Maybe the game was being updated with the Star Tours attraction since the Star Wars franchise was now owned by Disney. If that was the case, I'd be so surprised and ecstatic. Star Tours was one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland next to the Matterhorn and Its A Small World, so I selected the update and the console began whirring. One thing I failed to notice though was that this update had no description of what exactly it was, which got me a bit worried that this update might be a virus or spyware. I thought about maybe cancelling the update, but my curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see what it was, yet I made a personal note to quickly unplug the system if this unknown update turned out to be a virus or some sort of malicious software that could potentially harm my Xbox. However, once the update reached 71%, an error message appeared saying that the system had encountered an error and would need to restart. Frustrated, I tapped the reset button on my console and waited for the game to reload. It took some time but the update eventually reached 100% without any problems, so I loaded up the game, expecting to maybe see some new attractions and minigames. However, what I saw next would make me look at Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Disneyland itself in a completely different way. When the game opened up, I was greeted with a horrifying sight that has burned itself into my mind forever. My female avatar character stood in the very center of Fantasy Land, or rather, what was left of it. All around my avatar, various attractions lay in ruins and some were on fire, including the large Cinderella castle. The castle looked as if a small plane had crashed into it. Most of it was in pieces and on fire except for Aurora's tower in the middle, and the drawbridge was cracked and bent in odd angle, but still accessible. The sky was now a reddish brush fire color with light brown clouds and smoke could be seen coming from all over different parts of the park. Also, there were no other NPC's anywhere in sight, and the Disney characters weren't present either. I also recognized the background music to be the Keyblade Graveyard theme from Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, a tune filled with melancholy and sorrow, which seemed perfectly fitting given the situation. Another very unsettling thing I noticed was my avatar character. Her clothing was covered in dust and dirt, and her hair was all messy. She also had what appeared to be small cuts and bruises on her arms and legs, and there were a few years in her shorts and Disney T-shirt. The poor girl literally looked as if she had just escaped from a burning building or a war zone, and her reactions were completely different than usual. If I left my avatar standing in one place without touching the controller for about four seconds, she would clutch her arms toward her chest and her legs would tremble in fright. She'd also look to the left and right with a frightened expression on her face, and even while moving her around, her expression didn't change. She'd still keep that frightened look on her face even while walking or running. I was completely disgusted by what I seeing, and also a bit upset as well. Just what kind of sick, messed up joke was this? Was this part of the update? If so, just what the hell was going on here? Why did Disneyland now look like the aftermath of Hiroshima? I figured that the only way to find the answer to that question was to play the game and look for some clues to find the answers I sought. I decided to check Frontier Land first for any possible NPC's or Disney characters since there obviously weren't any in Fantasy Land. As I headed to my destination, my mind began racing with so many other questions that I desperately wanted answers to. Why was the park like this? What could have happened that ended up laying it to burning ruins? I had a few theories about what was going on and why things were as they were now, but I had no way of confirming them. One possible theory I had was that one of the Disney villains had been behind this supposed attack on Disneyland and my goal was to defeat them. Another was that some sort of natural disaster had occurred which left the entire park in ruins and killed everyone off, leaving my avatar as the lone survivor. The first theory seemed a bit more accurate than the second one, but like I said, it was only a wild guess. I had no way of knowing what was going on as of now, but I had a feeling that I would find out later on. As I made it to what was once Frontier Land, I saw something near the entrance to Big Thunder Mountain, which was now mostly a pile of rubble. It was a large sign with a message on it. Curious, I walked up to it and read the following text which read, "Happiness means nothing if everyone doesn't get along". I raised an eyebrow in complete confusion. "What the hell?" I thought, confused. What was that message supposed to mean? Happiness means nothing if everyone doesn't get along? What was this implying? It didn't make an inch of sense as to what was going on here. I read the message again about five times, trying to figure out what it meant, but I couldn't. I wondered if maybe the message had something to do with the park looking like a war zone, but I just wasn't sure. It didn't provide enough details for me to give me the answers I wanted, so I moved on, hoping there'd be other clues around the ruined park to solve this very unsettling mystery. I headed out of the area, moving past burning kiosks and toppled waste bins, still finding no NPC's or Disney characters anywhere in sight. I also didn't see Karen the park guide anywhere either, though I wasn't too surprised. Everywhere I went, I only saw more and more destruction all around me, but still no other NPC's. Rides and attractions were in ruins, and some of them had flames dancing around them. It was a very morbid scene, and I couldn't understand what the point of all this was. Why would Disney put such a dark themed update like this in a game meant to be family friendly? Was Disney even the one who made the update? I had no way of knowing, at least not yet. I eventually came to the Matterhorn, which was now in complete ruins. The bobsled's were knocked over, one of them had been half melted by the flames surrounding the now burning mountain, and the water was also almost completely dried up. I also saw another sign near one of the toppled bobsled's and ran towards it to see what the message was. The message on this sign read, "This place is a facade to escape reality". Again, I was left confused and bewildered. I didn't know what to make of this message. The place was a facade? What the heck was that supposed to mean? Was the message referring to the Matterhorn, or the park itself? These messages didn't give me a clear enough explanation as to what was going on, so I ended up being left with more questions than answers. Not finding anything useful, I left the Matterhorn behind and decided to try another attraction in hopes of finding the answers I needed. The closest one was It's A Small World, so I headed straight for it, hoping to find some answers. But at the same time, I was worried about what I'd find there. Once I reached the attraction, I was horrified at what lay before me. The large Small World castle was on fire and parts of it were in pieces. The large clock face had fallen off the burning castle and lay burning on the ground, and several of the boats were on fire as well. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and teared up. I know it might sound strange to cry about something like this, but It's A Small World was one of my most favorite attractions in the part, and seeing it in burning ruins like this nearly broke my heart. But what broke my heart even more was the message written on a sign next to the attraction entrance that said, "There is no happiest place on Earth, not when hatred and violence still exists with the hearts of many". After reading that unpleasant message, I decided to press on and see if any of the other attractions had similar responses. As I was about to head over to Mickey's Toon Town, I stopped when I noticed something, or rather someone near the exit of It's A Small World. It was a little Asian girl with black hair tied up in two black buns wearing a dark purple skirt and light purple T-shirt with a violet collar, socks of the same color and black shoes. I quickly recognized her as the character named Ling from the It's A Small World TV series and wondered why she was in the game. The characters from that series didn't normally appear in this game, but I suspected that update had something to do with it. Ling was sitting on the ground looking downwards at the ground, and when I approached her to try and speak to her, she looked up at me with a saddened look on her face and said, "...". Not satisfied, I tried speaking to her again, and this time, she actually responded. Ling said, "If it's answers you seek, go to the top of Cinderella's castle". She then resumed her sad posture and I turned around to leave, thankful for finally finding some useful information. At the same time though, I felt very uneasy and nervous about what I'd find in the castle, even more so than when I had been heading for It's A Small World. I had already been thinking a lot about the other three messages I had seen back at Big Thunder Mountain, Matterhorn, and It's A Small World, and I couldn't help but wonder if this was all some sick prank being pulled by Disney, or if someone else not associated with Disney was behind this horrid update. I was pretty convinced at this point that Disney wasn't behind this. They'd never put something like this in a family friendly game like Kinect Disneyland Adventures, so that meant someone else had to have done it. I also wondered if other gamers who owned this game got the same horrid update as I did. If so, why hadn't Disney noticed it? Surely someone would have reported it by now. I had only been playing the game for about forty minutes, but it felt like an hour to me. It took me a few minutes to make it back to the Cinderella castle, and when I reached it, I crossed the broken bridge and entered the castle corridor where I saw a door labeled, "TOWER ENTRANCE". I then entered the door and started climbing a long spiral staircase that seemed to stretch on for hours. As I climbed the steps, I began to notice various posters pasted on the walls, and what I saw on those posters made me almost gasp in shock. The images on those posters depicted some very disturbing and graphic things that I can tell you should never be put into a family friendly game like this one. One of the first posters I saw depicted the holocaust of WWII. It showed the Nazi's committing various atrocities against the Jews of Europe, the death camps, the enormous piles of corpses, the gas chambers, and so much more. However, it got so much worse as I pressed on. The next poster I saw showed images of the atrocities committed against the Chinese by the Imperial Japanese Empire, such as the Nanking Massacre, women being beheaded with swords, and children being shot and beaten by animalistically savage Japanese soldiers. I also saw images of the atomic bombs being dropped on Japan, then the aftermath which depicted a bunch of Japanese people ranging from adults to children all suffering from severe radiation burns and radiation poisoning. I was sickened by what I saw on those horrible posters, and I knew for a full on fact that my earlier guess was right; Disney wasn't behind this. Whoever had made this update was probably a hacker or perhaps some very sick minded Disney employee trying to scare or sicken other gamers. But what the biggest question I had was why anyone would do this? What was the point of taking such a wonderful and amazing game like this and then warping and twisting it into some sick, perverted nightmare like this? And why those messages and the horrid posters on the walls? I kept replaying those messages in my mind along with what Ling told me back at the remains of the Small World castle and began to wonder what all of them were implying. But as I looked at more and more of the highly disturbing posters as I climbed the tower, a horrible thought came to me as I gazed at the posters. I thought back to the messages and then I looked at the posters again, then I began to piece some things together in my head. I had already had a good idea of what was going on, but this pretty much covered it. I thought back to the third message that stated that there was no happiest place on Earth as long as violence and hatred still existed in people's hearts, then I began to realize what was happening, but I still want confirmation. Once I finally reached the tower, I expected to see either Princess Cinderella or Aurora there, but I was instead greeted by a character that never appeared in the game before. It was Yensid the wizard from the first Fantasia film and Kingdom Hearts 2 standing at the tower balcony and gazing down at the burning inferno that was once Disneyland. When I walked up to him and spoke to him, he kept his back turned on me, but still spoke back to me. "So you've come. I take it Ling must have told you that this tower holds the answers you seek, did she not?" Yensid asked in a concerned tone. He then turned around to face me and I noticed that he had a serious expression in his face. "Do you not understand that you can't run from the one truth that you all attempt to escape by coming here? It doesn't matter where you go, or what you try to deny. There is no happiest place on Earth, not even here," Yensid explained sternly. "This park is merely an escape that you people use to escape the true evil that lurks in the outside, and that evil is yourselves. You fight wars amongst yourselves, create weapons of mass destruction, and commit countless atrocities. As long as these horrible traits still exist within you humans, there will never be true happiness or peace on Earth, not even in this place". I felt my heart drop as I took in everything Yensid had just said. Those messages back at the burning attractions, the posters on the tower stairway walls; it all made sense now. They were all conveying one big message, and I knew what it was now. The message that the creator of this sick update seemed to be conveying was that no place on Earth was peaceful as long as everyone still fought amongst themselves and refused to put aside their differences. However, Yensid didn't explain why the park was in flaming ruins, but I soon got my answer to that question. Yensid then said in an angry tone, "Can you not see what has become of this place because of your acts of violence? Your wars have brought destruction upon this place. If you believe me not, then observe!". Yensid then held out his hands and a large orb of light appeared within them, forming a moving image. The image showed the park the way it was before the horrid update, and all the NPC's and Disney characters could be seen enjoying themselves and entertaining each other, but then there was trouble. The image zoomed into two objects in the sky heading straight for the park, and they caught the attentions of both the NPC's and the Disney characters. As the objects got closer, I realized in horror what they were; they were ballistic missiles. At that moment, I knew what was about to happen and began to tense up, and what I saw happen next still gives me nightmares to this day. Both missiles struck the park head on, hitting both Tomorrow Land and Frontier Land, which sent two massive explosions across the park that incinerated everything in its path. All the NPC's and Disney characters began running and screaming in both terror and agony as they too were incinerated to ashes by the explosive shockwaves. What made this sight even more disturbing and horrifying was the fact that their deaths were shown in highly graphic detail. A child NPC was shown burning slowly to death on the ground with her flesh burned completely off her body, revealing some of her bones and charred organs, and several others were shown laying on the ground dead with charred skeletons being the only parts left of their corpses. It was the most sickening thing I'd seen this far since the update, and I felt the urge to puke at this gruesome sight. Within a few minutes, the park was now in complete ruins and the all the characters were nothing more than piles of ashes. The orb then vanished and Yensid glared directly at the screen with rage in his eyes. "Now you understand?! This is proof that there is no happiest place on Earth, not even in this park. You come here to try and escape the harshness of the outside world by entertaining yourselves like children, but in reality, you are only running away from your conflicts like cowards! You basically create delusions, and you attempt to escape the outside world using those delusions, but in the end you will always fail!" he boomed. Yensid then cast a fire spell which hit the screen and caused static to erupt, then an error message appeared saying that the game had encountered a problem and would need to restart. Instead of restarting it though, I just shut the system off along with the TV and sat back on the couch, starring ahead while completely lost in thought by everything I had just seen. My entire childhood had just been ruined, all thanks to some sick minded programmer who probably hacked into Disney to upload this disgusting update into the game. Despite knowing that it was only a game, I couldn't help but think about everything Yensid had said, and what those messages said. As much as I wanted to deny all of it, I knew deep down that the messages I saw in the game were legit, and so were Yensid's words. Everyone including me would always see Disneyland as the happiest place on Earth, when in reality, we're only lying to ourselves. As Yensid said so himself, there is no happiest place on Earth. Theme parks like Disneyland, Disney World, Knott's Berry Farm, and every other theme park around the world are just facades we use to escape the harsh reality of the outside world. And once we leave, our problems will be out there waiting for us, whatever what they may be. I believe that was the message the hacker was trying to send to the player, but for what reason, I don't know. I had no idea who this person was or what their intentions were. However, I found that out a few hours later when I turned on the news and found out something shocking. A retired thirty year old military veteran by the name of Sammy Burns had been arrested for being involved in a serious act of illegally hacking into Disney's gaming servers. He had served in the marine corps for about five years in Iraq and was discharged at age 28 due to PTSD. Apparently, he was also very skilled with computer programming and had been the one responsible for creating that update in Kinect Disneyland Adventures. Sammy had used the Deep Web to hack into various gaming systems all over the U.S where he sent a homemade DLC version of the game to thousands and thousands of other players who owned it, and I was one of them. Once other players received the update, they began immediately flooding Disney with calls about the content on the game, yet the higher ups of Disney and the creators of Kinect Disneyland Adventures had no knowledge of this so called update. But when several other players started sending screenshots of the game to Disney and explaining what they found in the game as well, they immediately got several law enforcement agencies involved to try and track down the source of this obvious hack. A few undercover agents using the Deep Web eventually tracked Mr. Burns down by tracing his IP address and arrested him for illegal activity online. Due to not disabling JavaScript, law enforcement easily tracked him down. Sammy claimed to the police that the people had lost their way by not seeing the true horror's of the world, so he tried to convey a message to everyone in a way they'd all notice, and that was by hacking a video game and using it to spread his word to everyone that the world isn't a happy place as some would think it is. Sammy also said to the police while in tears that he was forced to shoot several armed children in Iraq who had been members of a terrorist group attacking his team, then claimed to hear their screams in his nightmares. He was later confined to a mental hospital for his PTSD symptoms and mild insanity, and that's all I know. I don't know why Sammy would ever do what he did, but I can only guess that whatever he had witnessed over in Iraq must have really messed him up. War can really drive even the most sane person to insanity and cause them to become something far worse than just trained killers, and I believe that's what happened to Sammy. I don't believe that he was an evil man, but rather someone who had simply tried to express his feelings and personal opinions, yet chose the wrong method to do so. It's been two years since the whole incident took place and I can never look at that game or Disneyland the same way ever again after what I saw in that hacked update. Whenever I go there with my family, I am reminded of everything that the game had told me, and that our world has no happiest place anywhere. There is no happy place in a world where humanity constantly fights amongst themselves for power, greed, and so many other things. Humans are a violent race, and unless we put aside our differences and change our ways, the world will never truly be a happy place.